I still have my first car, a '66 Tahoe Turquoise
C-code coupe with auto and a bunch of added options over the years. My parents helped me buy it when I was 16 and 1/2. The car has been reliable, useful and tons of fun... I drove it through high school, dating, to work, slow for grandmother's shopping, and too fast on more than one occasion...to college and to the police academy, to work at a Sheriff's Office until I got a take-home Crown Vic... even left my wedding in it.
Fast forward 27 years and I have driven both my sons from just after birth til now, and they LOVE the Mustang. I just acquired a very nice and (almost) rust-free '66 Emberglo C-code coupe with auto, factory air, power steering, and a fresh build on the 289. It runs great, shifts, stops, and steers perfectly. The paint is a 10 in some areas and an 8.5 or so in others. It's not perfect, but it will be a great father and sons project until we get one for my younger son. (He wants a Nightmist Blue one.) It needs EVERYTHING done to the interior, but it's complete and there is new carpet and underlayment, so we have a solid start. Last weekend, we got rid of the remnants of the original headliner and some flash rust, I primed the inside of the roof and C pillars to prepare for new insulation. Next, out comes the front and rear glass for a headliner and new weather stripping with the glass re-install. Plan to detail the engine, rebuild the suspension and detail the undercarriage.
We have a lot to do to make this Emberglo and Parchment pony all it can be. I plan to teach my son to drive in it and have him take his driver license test at 16 in it, laying the foundation for a second generation of Mustang memories.

Some pics...it will hafta share the spotlight with the Tahoe Turquoise coupe I've had so long, but we have two very complete cars to compare that were built less than a week apart at Metuchen, soIMG_20170517_214238_1549972686589.jpg we can make them both better... and cruise together !!

Put my son to work...Got the pieces of headliner out, sanded the entire inside roof structure (oh, my neck and shoulders) and got it primed. Added some extra insulation for sound deadening, to keep out some of the Alabama heat and eventually keep in some of the Ford A/C !! Ordered the headliner, adhesive, windlace, front and rear glass seals, and gonna pick up some Bedding & Glazing Compound for the next phase.

Restored the trunk area, sealed the gas tank against the body, new filler pipe hose, stripped and detailed the filler pipe and trunk latch pieces and reattached with correct gasket, screws and clamps. Now we can take it to the old school Säco Station at Woodham's for some non-ethanol gas. (The second photo is my '66 next to a Galaxie). Fill'er up!

Couldn't wash the car until all the crap in the cowl area was cleaned out...the thing was crammed full of stuff a mouse or squirrel constructed out of the seat foam, firewall insulation mat, leaves and acorns while it was in storage someplace. I took out the heater box for a rebuild, lay on my back across the door sills, reached up and over the cowl "hats" and spent a few hours with the vacuum. I filled up half of a 16-gallon shop vac and FINALLY got it all cleaned out. Got some surface rust but the cowl is SOLID and I can treat, prime, and seal it all up so after we do the headliner and reinstall the glass, we can give it a bath. Used my phone's video feature to hold it inside the cowl and get a look around the hats 360° and make sure I got everything out that would come loose. I thought about attaching a GoPro type camera to the end of my small vacuum hose... maybe I will run one in there to show what it looks like when I'm done. Beats the heck out of taking off the fenders and possibly replacing the cowl hats, cutting, welding and painting. This one was solid enough I won't have to do that.

Couldn't tell how much gas was in the tank, found an old half-azz repair in the trunk on the wire to the sending unit, fixed that and re-wrapped the whole harness, so it works now. Put 5 gallons in, showed a little more than 1/4 tank (right on!) and decided to take it for a drive. Idles really well, takes the gas and downshifts great when I pour the coals on, BUT is started surging, "hunting", lurching forward at a stoplight, and cutting out in part-throttle. Didn't do that before, so I decided to take it back to the house before I broke down someplace.

Figured there was trash someplace in the carb (it's an older rebuilt 2100 on the car when I bought it), I found some sandy crap in the bottom of the fuel bowl, so I figured it has gotten to the power valve. Then, I saw bubbles coming up from the power valve into the fuel bowl. What the heck causes that!?!

Is the camera case black or the argent a/c evaporator face correct for the 66? Center only or left side only evaporator lines? Does it matter? This January-built 66 doesn't look like it has ever been apart, and it has the argent faced, left side lines.evaporator. The entire interior is original (and is trashed) except for the carpet that has been replaced but everything else is spot-on. Gonna take EVERYTHING out and off the dash to clean, paint and restore and that will include disassembling and restoring the evaporator case with a higher-efficiency core. I want to put it back together correct... thanks.

We took the Autolite 2100 off and rebuilt it today. The fuel filter was full of silt that poured out when I turned it over, there was more in the float bowl and a bunch in the power valve. I don't see how it was running at all, especially not as good as it was before the last drive. It had a decal from a prior "remanufacture" BUT it was missing the check ball below the weight for the main booster line AND there was no spring behind the accelerator pump diaphragm !! I sourced a spring from another 2100 I had in my stash, and the GP Sorenson kit came with a check ball. Cleaned it all up, put it back together, cranked about 5 seconds to get fuel to it and VROOOOMM !! It fired right up and ran smooth as glass. I was so pleased I didn't even adjust the idle mixture screws, my son gave me a big happy high-five and we took it for a midnight cruise. That was the best part.

I don't know where it came from, but it's not in the fuel tank, and no longer in the carb so I'm happy.
I took the sending unit out of the tank (no drain plug dangit) dumped the 3 gallons of fuel it had and got a look around inside the tank. Looks NEW. And the sending unit was in remarkable shape, so I'm guessing they got installed after the system sucked up dirt out of the old one. The car sat for more than 8 years, apparently empty, so after pouring in a couple gallons, a little drive, check for leaks and a couple more gallons, check for leaks and after dinner, still no leaks... filled it slam full of non-ethanol gas. Now, I can put gas in it, see how much I have, and my fuel bowl doesn't look like a lizard habitat.

This evening my son and I taped off the perimeter, cut the old hard-as-a-rock weatherstripping and removed the front and rear glass on the Emberglo 66, found the original headliner scraps and gorgeous paint underneath. The frame is solid and like new. Couldn't be happier with that as we are getting ready to put in the new headliner, windshield and rear glass with gaskets, and windlace...

You're doing the Lord's work here sir. Fun to follow along. I must admit I'm more than a little jealous. I would love to find a coupe in that good of a condition for my 13yo daughter and I to work on. And I'm sure I've said it before, but both colors are just fantastic.

I have read and followed the projects of others, admired cars from the web to magazines to car shows to junk yards, and I love to see em all on the road, but there has just always been something about a Mustang. So I hope everyone enjoys this.

When I was a child, I got to ride in my brother's original Mustang pedal car. We still have it. The bathtub in our house had a side sculpture line just like the driver side of a 65-68 Mustang. The house was built in 73, so I'm sure that was no coincidence. I pretended I was driving a Mustang when I played in the tub before I was old enough to count. I tried to build Mustangs out of Legos, and in my mind that's what they were when I raced across the kitchen counter. When I was 14, I had a cousin with a Gunnmetal Grey 66 coupe before there was ever an Eleanor. When I was 15, I had to wait for the bus as my next door neighbor, a year older, would drive right by me every morning in a Vintage Burgundy and Parchment Deluxe Interior 66 coupe to go to the very same school. He never offered me a ride. Not once. But I kept my eyes peeled. And my hopes never died. Turning 16 and saving money at a gas station job, I saw every kind of car. I test-drove a Chevelle SS, a Hurst Olds 442, a Buick Grand National, a Monte Carlo SS, a Grand Prix...
Then one day my Mom saw a funny colored Mustang driven by an old man in town, with a simple For Sale sign in the back window. I made the call. And when I saw it, I KNEW.
27 years later my older son fell in love with the Emberglo color as I looked at Mustangs of every shade and condition on the web. I never thought it could or would come together like it has. When I got it, I hid it three days and put it in the driveway while was gone. And I got to video his reaction when he saw it. I think I cried a little because for a minute, I was 16 again.

My son helped take out the front and rear glass, and prep the frame after dinner until bedtime, okay, a little past bedtime. And I stayed up ALL NIGHT installing the headliner. It has been over 20 years since I've done a Mustang headliner and this was an all-nighter of a project for sure. I did the one on MyFirstCar by myself also in the parking lot of my college days apartment complex. I'm sure I didn't take as much time then and care as I did on this one, and my first one is still holding on tight, so maybe this one will, too.
I used a big bag of binder clips to hold stuff as I pulled and tightened as I didn't order extra windlace and I didn't keep the old stuff the rodents had been chewing on. I hope the last few fold marks / wrinkles I couldn't get out with my wife's hair dryer will smooth out tomorrow in the sun. Then I / we can put the glass back in ! !

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